Question 1

What types of businesses do you work with?

Accepted Answer

We primarily work with Indian SMEs and growing businesses in the ₹2 crore to ₹200 crore revenue range — businesses that are beyond the startup stage and need senior advisory without the cost of full-time functional heads across every domain. We also work with larger organisations on specific project engagements.

Question 2

How does an engagement typically start?

Accepted Answer

We start with a free 30-minute discovery call to understand your situation and where the gaps are. From there, we provide a short written proposal outlining scope, expected outcomes, engagement model (retainer or project), and indicative cost. Most engagements begin within 2 weeks of the initial conversation.

Question 3

Do you work on retainer or project basis?

Accepted Answer

Both. Ongoing advisory — like a fractional CFO engagement or monthly HR compliance management — works on a retainer. Specific initiatives — a CRM implementation, an HR audit, a marketing attribution setup — are typically scoped as fixed-price projects. We'll recommend the right model based on what you actually need.

Question 4

Can I engage just one service, or do I need to take all four?

Accepted Answer

You can engage any single service independently. Many clients start with one practice area and expand to others as they see results. The advantage of working with us across multiple areas is integrated advisory — your Finance, HR, IT, and Marketing decisions are informed by the same team with the same understanding of your business.

Question 5

How long does a typical engagement run?

Accepted Answer

Project engagements typically run 4–12 weeks depending on scope. Retainer engagements are structured as 6-month or 12-month commitments, with a review and renewal decision at the end of each term. We don't lock clients into multi-year contracts.

Question 6

What is a fractional CFO and do I need one?

Accepted Answer

A fractional CFO is a senior finance professional who works with your business part-time — typically 2–3 days per week or a defined monthly retainer — rather than as a full-time employee. If your business is between ₹5 crore and ₹50 crore in revenue, has no one managing financial strategy (as opposed to compliance), and is making major decisions with incomplete financial visibility, you likely need fractional CFO support.

Question 7

We already have a CA. What does your finance practice add?

Accepted Answer

A CA firm typically manages compliance: GST, TDS, audits, tax filing. That is essential but it is not financial leadership. Our Finance practice focuses on what a CA firm doesn't: financial modelling, cash flow forecasting, banking relationships, fundraising preparation, management reporting, and strategic financial decisions. The two roles are complementary, not competing.

Question 8

Can you help us close our books faster?

Accepted Answer

Yes — accelerating month-end close is one of our most common finance engagements. For multi-entity or multi-outlet businesses, we typically reduce close time from 3–4 weeks to 3–5 days through process standardisation, accounting platform configuration, daily reconciliation habits, and automated consolidation.

Question 9

What HR compliance obligations apply to our business in India?

Accepted Answer

The obligations depend on your headcount, geography, and industry. At 10+ employees: ESI registration and contributions. At 20+ employees: EPF registration and contributions. At 10+ employees: POSH compliance (Internal Complaints Committee, policy, annual training). Gratuity applies at 5+ years of service for employees in businesses with 10+. Professional tax applies in most states. We run compliance audits to identify exactly what applies to your specific situation.

Question 10

We've never done a formal HR audit. Where do we start?

Accepted Answer

We start with a 2-week audit covering: statutory registrations (EPF, ESI, professional tax, shops & establishments), monthly filing compliance, employment documentation (offer letters, appointment letters, POSH acknowledgements), separation documentation for departed employees, and payroll structure correctness. The audit produces a gap report with prioritised actions — we then manage the remediation.

Question 11

Can you handle our monthly EPF, ESI, and professional tax filings?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Our HR practice manages ongoing statutory filings as a managed service — EPF monthly ECR, ESI contribution challans, professional tax (state-specific), Form 24Q quarterly TDS returns, and the associated year-end filings. We act as your outsourced HR compliance team.

Question 12

How do you approach AI adoption for SMEs?

Accepted Answer

We start with a process mapping exercise to identify where your team spends the most time on manual, repetitive, data-heavy work. That's where AI delivers the highest ROI. For most SMEs, the first wins are in document extraction (invoices, POs), automated report generation, and email triage — not in complex ML models. We tier AI adoption: Tier 1 (process automation), Tier 2 (customer-facing intelligence), Tier 3 (decision intelligence) — and help you build in that order.

Question 13

We need a CRM. Can you help us select and implement one?

Accepted Answer

Yes. We run vendor-neutral CRM selection engagements: defining your requirements, evaluating platforms against those requirements (Salesforce, Zoho CRM, HubSpot, Microsoft Dynamics), and recommending the right fit for your stage and budget. We then manage or oversee implementation, including data migration, team training, and process integration. We take no vendor commissions.

Question 14

Do you build custom software or only advise on it?

Accepted Answer

Both. We advise on build vs. buy decisions and manage vendor selection when a market solution fits. When custom development is the right call — a bespoke workflow tool, a customer-facing app, a proprietary data pipeline — we scope, design, and manage the build through our technology practice. We work with vetted development teams and own the outcome, not just the recommendation.

Question 15

How do you measure marketing ROI?

Accepted Answer

We build attribution infrastructure first — UTM tagging across all channels, CRM connected to analytics, a revenue-by-source dashboard. This replaces the typical guess-based budget allocation with a data-driven view of which channels actually drive paying customers, not just traffic or leads. From there, budget reallocation follows the data. Businesses that implement this typically see a 25–45% reduction in cost-per-customer without increasing total spend.

Question 16

Can you manage our digital marketing campaigns?

Accepted Answer

We offer both advisory (strategy, attribution, channel selection, agency management) and execution (running campaigns directly on Google, Meta, and LinkedIn). For most businesses at the ₹2–20 lakh per month spend level, we recommend a hybrid: we manage strategy and attribution in-house and execute campaigns directly or oversee an agency, depending on what produces better results for your specific category.

Question 17

What's the difference between your marketing advisory and hiring a marketing agency?

Accepted Answer

A marketing agency typically focuses on one channel or output — social media content, paid ads, SEO. Our marketing practice starts upstream: strategy, positioning, ICP definition, channel mix, attribution. We then connect marketing investment to business outcomes (revenue, CAC, LTV) rather than reporting channel-level vanity metrics. We either execute or manage agencies, but we own the commercial outcome — not just the deliverable.

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